The Afternoon of Life

Monday, December 11, 2017

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Freedom of the press is the right to circulate opinions in
print without censorship by the government. Americans enjoy freedom of
the press under the First Amendment to the Constitution, which states:
'Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.'

freedom of the press -
Legal Definition. n. The right, guaranteed by the First Amendment
to the United States Constitution to publish and distribute information in
books, magazines, and newspapers without government intervention.

Each of the above definitions found on the internet
telling us the meaning of the 1st Amendment’s “Freedom
of the Press” clearly show that there are two roads of thought concerning that
freedom. There are actually incredible
differences in these statements. What
the actual amendment says, I believe very clearly, is “Congress shall make no
laws regarding abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”. Abridging is also synonymous with
“shortening, editing, condensing, abbreviating or reducing”. So basically, I think we can see how people
believe that ultimately Congress cannot MAKE LAWS that would stop anyone from
saying whatever they want to say…and publishing it.

The second definition above angered me…but also proved that
what I’ve seen with my ears and heard with my ears is FAKE NEWS. Some believe the purpose of the press is “the
right to circulate opinions in print without censorship by the
government.” There’s a word there that
blows me away. One of the words I
associated with “News” when I was growing up was that we were being told the
TRUTH…the WHOLE TRUTH. I remember
newscasters saying, “And in the interest of fairness…” before introducing “the
other side of the story”. I knew as a
child that there were ALWAYS two sides to a story. That’s proven every day in the courtroom
where you ALWAYS have the accused (the defendant) and the one who has brought
the charges (the prosecution). There is ALWAYS
a balance in any story that is reported FAIRLY.
But this second definition is a game changer. It says that the “News” is really just an
“opinion”. Now I don’t know about you,
but I know that just because I think something…my “opinion”…does NOT make it
news…does not make it fact…does not make it accurate. And when I share my opinion, I always preface
it with “in my opinion” to show imperatively that what I’m sharing IS NOT A
FACT. An opinion is NEVER truth. It’s the nearest thing a person may have to a
personal truth…but until “proven” it is NOT A FACT. If you put 10 people in a room who all share
the same opinion, it does not make the opinion FACT…it makes it just POPULAR
OPINION. If you decide the popular
opinion is TRUTH…and you share it as such with people who do not know there are
differing FACTS to the story that completely change the TONE and TRUTH of the
story, then you are doing nothing but sharing PROPAGANDA. You are NOT sharing “real news”.

prop·a·gan·da

information, especially of a biased or misleading nature,
used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.

Look how closely the words press/propaganda are
related. Both words are about dispensing
“information”. Propaganda takes on a
more “sinister” connotation because it’s done with the purpose of “promoting a
particular political cause or point of view (can we agree that “point of view”
and “opinion” are the same by definition?).

The FAKE NEWS title that President Trump introduced to
America may have done us a total disservice. He should have defined today's news as nothing more that sheer PROPAGANDA! The truth of the matter is that multiple media sources find absolutely
nothing wrong with promoting their own VIEW or OPINION of a situation and then
finding multiple sources to back up what was initially THEIR OPINION. In the church, we call that
“proof-texting”…finding a verse to back up your opinion to make your opinion
sound more plausible, factual and Biblical. But
guess what? A LIE IS A LIE IS A LIE…no
matter how many people believe it. If it
is just an opinion…if it is just a point of view…if there are FACTS that deny
its plausibility…IT IS A LIE. And an
organization that continually spreads lies in the presence of truth should not be labeled PRESS….it should be labeled PROPAGANDA! We live in a world of fallen men and
women…liars…thieves…adulterers…fornicators…coveters. Their OPINIONS are all biased.

In science, we demand that an experiment must be able to be
reproduced with the same outcome before it is declared a TRUTH or FACT of
science. Until then, it is just a
theory. We need to use the same
scientific imperial in what we choose to understand from the media. For that to happen, the PRESS must stop
infringing on a person’s right to trial to determine whether they’ve done or
not done what the press claims. We live
in a country where a person is innocent until PROVEN guilty. The “press” somehow believes they are in
charge of “holding people accountable”.
The press has basically usurped the power of the judicial
system…dragging a man’s or woman’s name through the court of public opinion
before they have a chance to even make a statement regarding an incident. If the accused cries “Foul”, the press says, “We’re holding people accountable.”
THAT IS NOT THE JOB OF THE PRESS. Their job is to share INFORMATION and FACTS…not PROPAGANDA. Their job is to share TRUTH…not OPINION
(unless it’s labeled as such). Their job
is to INFORM…not to SWAY. America is on
a slippery slope when we take the word of every Joe Schmo who serves in the
media as “truth”. Remember…these media
reporters and announcers appear to live for their 15 minutes to fame
(yes…that’s just my opinion and not a truth) just like the rest of us. They appear to have high goals of saving the
world from impending doom or dangerous despots.
They appear to find it easy to place the blame for anything and
everything happening in this world on the back of someone who’s had nothing to
do with decade- and centuries-old problems.
It’s time for American citizens to wise up to the fact that the press
has stepped out of its boundaries and become a powerful political player in the
U.S. with the ability to sway opinions using propaganda under the guise of
“news”. It’s time for the American
people to hold the PRESS accountable.
The president has more important things to do.

How do we hold the press accountable? Write letters to the editors when false news
is fabricated or opinions are shared as facts.
Pick three stories from any newspaper and see if you can tell the
difference between fact and opinion and if they’ve marked it as such (obviously
“opinions” are on an “Opinions” page and are not to be considered fact…use a
different section to study the article).
IF YOU FIND JUST ONE MISTAKE IN THE ARTICLE, then dismiss the whole
article. It’s either all true or all
false…there is no gray area. Talk to
your friends about this travesty. Start
educating each other about the fact that if we don’t hold the press
accountable, we become gullible…and will be fed lies as truth. We may have already crossed that line long
ago!

We demand evidence in science to determine FACT. We demand evidence in court to determine
FACT. We need to demand evidence in the
PRESS…or deny plausibility when they print a story that is not true…whether by
error on the part of the author….whether by outright lies of the witnesses….BUT
THE PRESS HAS A RESPONSIBILITY TO SHARE INFORMATION….ACCURATE INFORMATION. I for one am tired of the whiners and even
more troubled by the vulnerable people who have accepted the lies as truth and
become blinded to reality.

By the way…this tirade is credited to a clip I saw of “The
View” (I never see the show…just clips shared online…and I keep telling myself
I’m not going to watch because theirs is the BIGGEST PROPAGANDA SHOW on
television). Joy Behar had her audience
cheering when she shared a story PREMATURELY.
The story was labeled “Joy Behar Forced to Apologize”. All she
apologized for was someone else’s mistake…not her own. She led people to cheer about something that
could have torn our nation apart.
There’s a special word for someone like that…TRAITOR. (again…my opinion). Even television has no standards for
TRUTH….but we’ve known that for a long time.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

A storm was coming. A
destructive storm. It was huge and was
going to affect everyone and everything.
It came from the sky…from on high.
And when it hit the ocean waters, the ocean waters swallowed up
everything on dry land.

I saw the wave coming…everyone around me saw the wave
coming. Some tried to run. I stood still…very still…and let the water
rush over me. It missed nothing. It swallowed everything. Bodies and trees and animals were swirling
and swirling, tossed to and fro, washing machine agitation. I could see the looks of pure fear and panic
on faces around. I could see looks of
resignation to an obvious fate. I could
see looks of anger that this storm was now in control and these people had no
say in what was happening to them.

And suddenly, with no hope in sight, I was on my feet and
dry…with everyone around me. I was in a
bubble…a huge, clear bubble that looked out into what appeared to be
space. Millions of stars to be
seen. The bubble was other worldly. You could see clearly from one side to the
other, even though there were hallways and sidewalks and rooms and closets. If you looked one way you could see the
smaller units of the bubble. But if you
looked out you saw stars…and if you looked toward the center of the bubble, you
saw the whole bubble…clearly…full of thousands of people.

What happened inside the bubble was bizarre. There was a day the sun shone so bright that
the bubble began to heat up and people threw themselves from the bubble into
space…falling (which in retrospect was strange because my mind knows there’s no
gravity in space to make one fall).
There was the day things got cold…seeping-into-the-bones cold. As I looked across the bubble, frost was
forming on the walls. People were racing
for blankets…for a warm body to lie against.
And in the cold, many froze. But
I was watching it all…not a part of it even though I was there. My eyes could clearly see all that was
happening. There were fathers chasing
children. There was food…so much
food. And some sat at tables eating and
eating and eating. They never left the
tables…dining until they collapsed from the amount of food they’d eaten. No one who sat at a table got up and left a
table…they died while stuffing their faces full of the delicacies offered to
them. No one was satisfied. And we could all see what was happening in
this dining area…and still people chose to go in and take a seat. There was so much more that happened in this
dream…it seemed like every few minutes the scenery changed to some other
story. Every story started with
something good…something that looked fine.
Nothing inside the bubble felt dangerous, until a person started to
participate in it and could not escape that enticing scene.

There were elevators…hallways…open
concourses…rooms…closets. At times the
walls appeared as glass and at other times they were walls that became
boundaries so dark that no one could see in and no one could see out. The closets were frightening. I could only look inside of them…I never
entered one during the dream. The colors
were vivid…the smells of food made my mouth water…the sounds of laughter so
loud and clear…along with the screams of pain and fear.

I struggled to escape the dream. This wasn’t the kind of daydream that one can
capture or release and move on. I came
up out of the dream as if coming up out of deep waters. I lay still.
I took a breath, aware that I could breathe. I felt disoriented as I opened my eyes into
my somewhat darkened bedroom and realized the time with a startle. The dream had gone by in what seemed a flash,
but I’d slept for five hours…a long time for me to sleep at one time.

I felt a voice clearly directing, “Write it down.” You see, I had prayed only two nights ago
asking God to speak to me in a dream.
The Bible is full of stories of angels visiting with messages from God
and I wondered if God still spoke in dreams.
And I lay in bed pondering that dream.
Was it a message from God? Was it
my mind just sorting out life? Was it a
good dream or a nightmare? Everything
about it was wonderful…and frightening…and beautiful…and full of darkness…and
confusing. But as I continued to wake,
and ponder, I kept grabbing bits and pieces of the dream and could see how it
could be comforting in light of the events happening in my world today.

The storm represents the turmoil of the political scene these
days. In less than 48 hours, Donald
Trump will become the 44th President of the United States. He does so surrounded by tumultuous hate and
despair and vitriol like I’ve not seen in my lifetime. Donald Trump is not the storm! It’s the incredible turmoil of the people
that is the storm. My eyes tell me that
the storm is over-taking me. My eyes
tell me that it’s deadly. My eyes tell
me that it’s going to sweep up everyone and everything in its path.

But my spiritual eyes, grown through almost 60 years of faith
in God and a loving knowledge and experience with my Savior and Lord, Jesus
Christ, tells me the TRUTH. The storm
CANNOT hurt me because my FAITH is the BUBBLE that will protect me. My FAITH/spiritual eyes can see the big
picture. All that the world has found
enticing and pleasing and fun and comforting will still be available…
everything the people desire will still be available. BUT IT’S TO BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS because
it has the power to overcome and deceive and pull a person down and away from
the bubble. When we are admonished in
the Bible to “persevere”…when we are encouraged to “finish the race”…when we
are reminded to not give up “the good fight”…it’s because we are going to need
those gifts and abilities to withstand the temptations to give in to what we
see. If we do so, our lives are over and
we are no longer going to be protected by the “bubble” of our faith. God has provided the bubble…it’s given to us
for the purpose of protection…for the purpose of opening our eyes to see…for
the purpose of revealing the truth. We
MUST HOLD ON to all that’s been planted if we are to face the coming days of
turmoil, and fear and fear-mongering.
Doomsday prophets who have nothing to do with God will predict horrible
scenarios that are out-and-out lies.
They will be led by the tools satan has clearly used to bring us to this
day. Media, technology, false religions
and purely distorted minds will speak with authority…and we will know clearly
which authority they represent. They are
the walls that will capture us and bind us to our deaths. The hallways are the paths that we must rely
on God to move us through to safety.
Elevators are those paths we can traverse with others, in groups…safety
in numbers. But those closets…those
closets represent deep dark places.
Secrets. Lies that cannot be
undone. We must steer clear of the
closets. And if we must deal with the
closets, we must do so only IN THE LIGHT.
Light must be shed on secrets and can only be done so if secrets are
revealed. We keep secrets for a number
of a reasons: 1) to protect ourselves,
2) to protect someone else, 3) to deceive or 4) because satan wants to have his
way with us. The only secrets we should
have in our lives are those that are shared with God in private. But one of satan’s greatest tools in this
world is the destructive power of a secret.
One of the biggest truths we can remember from God’s Word is that we are
to CONFESS. Confession starts with
speaking out loud what satan wants kept in private…because in revealing the
secret, satan loses his power…the tenuous power that he uses to bind us to him.

I know that there is a lot of science that suggests our
dreams are merely our minds reaction to physical things that are happening in
our body while we’re at rest. Our
digestive system is at work when we’re resting.
Our muscles are repairing while we’re resting. Our minds are sorting and cataloging events
while we rest. I’d grabbed an easy snack
in the night when hunger spoke louder than sleep…and that food was being
digested as I rested.

But this dream was something so much more than the aftermath
of that snack. This was a reminder from
God that my faith would get me through the storm. The faith I have in Him…in His promises…in
the knowledge of His Word…will help me to discern truth in the storm of lies
that are headed our way. My faith…even
if it’s as small as a mustard seed…will cut to the chase and still have the
power to move mountains.

Friday, December 23, 2016

We had some
grocery and essential shopping that needed to be done, and I knew I didn’t want
to go to Walmart on the day before Christmas…but it never dawned on me that
half the town might be thinking the same way.

Several months
ago I started using the electronic carts at Walmart. The decision to do so resulted from a fall in
2000 that caused a lower back problem that has never been resolved. I can’t stand for more than a couple of
minutes without extreme, nauseating pain in my back. Earlier this year I started noticing a
swollen lump on the back of my right foot, and a visit to the podiatrist
revealed a large bone spur…and an aggravating Achilles tendon that swells,
making it almost impossible to walk sometimes.
I tend to walk like I’m wearing a high heel on my right foot. The doctor gave us an application for a
handicapped sticker, but I usually ask Dan to let me out at the door and my
foot hurts by the time I walk in the door and find a riding cart. So I don’t go to the store unless I really
have to.

I’ve had
strangers rudely comment when they see me riding a cart. They assume I’m lazy and I’m using the cart
because of my weight. It’s very likely
that my weight aggravates my injuries, but I choose to just grin and bear the
ugly remarks because I know the truth…and I would NEVER in a million years say
something so ugly to someone I know nothing about…but that’s a different story
completely. Let me move on from the
background info to today’s trip to Walmart…a store usually known for long
lines, few employees available to help and few lanes open for check out!

I got the last
electronic cart when I walked in the store, and was just thrilled to be able to
get one. I moved towards the produce
section and quickly filled the basket with veggies for a fresh veggie tray at
the family Christmas dinner. Before I
could turn to aisle #2, the beeper went off indicating “Low Battery”…so I
headed back to the front of the store. I
got to the main front aisle and DEAD…right where folks walk in and walk out of
the store…worst possible place for a “breakdown”. The Walmart greeter (who’s duty this time of
year is to check receipts) stopped long enough to help me move all my veggies
to a small basket because I couldn’t take the chair to the charging station
with anything in the basket. It charged
enough while I was stopped that I was able to crawl at a snail’s pace to the
charging station. Plugged her in…sat for
about 3 minutes…and it lit up with a “Full Charge”!!! Seemed unbelievable that it could charge that
quickly, but I counted my blessings, unplugged and pulled forward…about 5 feet….and
it dropped to “Low Battery”…so I backed up and plugged it in AGAIN.

This time I
sat for 10 minutes thinking, “I’ll bet Dan’s wondering where I’ve disappeared.” At the end of 10 minutes, I unplugged and
headed back into the store. Plopped my
blue basket right into the cart basket and hit the “forward” button. I found Dan almost immediately. In my wisdom, I had actually printed TWO
shopping lists…so we split it and he headed off to hunt down his items. I only had 5 things I needed…but before I
could find 3, that blasted beeping sound started up. I started crawling back to the front of the
store. This time a VERY NICE EMPLOYEE
caught up with me in produce and said, “Here, let me give you a push and we
should be able to get you to the front of the store quicker.” Would you believe we got back to the EXACT
SAME SPOT that it had died the first time, and it gave up the ghost??? The young man said, “Let me see if there’s
another cart available,” and moments later came riding around the corner. He and the Walmart greeter helped transfer
the blue basket and other items…and Dan’s coat…to the basket of electronic
chair #2! I moved over and pushed the
forward button.

NOTHING! I hit the backward button. Again, NOTHING! And yes…I’m back in the busiest intersection
in the store. I stood up and reseated
myself…I wiggled the seat around…I sighed…I pushed the buttons again. NOTHING.
My head is hanging in defeat now.
The greeter has no clue. We’d
both watched the other young man drive it without any difficulty (and I should
add that he was heftier than I am). In
desperation, I tried ONE MORE TIME…and voila’!
Movement. I said a prayer and
raced as quickly as a cart will race (approximately 3 mph) to the back of the
store to get crescent rolls because no Christmas dinner is perfect without
crescent rolls. I parked right against
the refrigerated section so I could reach up and get my crescent rolls. I put them in the cart and pushed the “Forward”
button…and, you guessed it.
NOTHING! For five minutes I sat
there. Do you know how many people buy
crescent rolls and pie crusts (on the bottom shelf) on December 23rd??? I do.
Too many. I was in everybody’s
way. Finally a store manager showed up
to ask a shelver a question and I explained my dilemma. SHE WAS SO NICE (2nd nice Walmart
worker in one day). She paged the front
hosts to see if there were any carts available on either end. There were NOT. She paged someone from maintenance to come
look at the cart. She had Dan
paged. I asked someone who was buying
crescent rolls if he would just “whack the cart” because that’s what guys do to
fix anything that’s not working. He
asked, “Did you drop it yet?” NICE
WALMART WORKER #3 showed up. She pushed
buttons…she sat on the seat…jiggled it and wiggled it. The crescent roll buyer ACTUALLY LIFTED THE
BACK OF THE CART AND DROPPED IT. Still
not a budge. They had me sit back down
to wait for Dan (who is really the one who should be riding an electric cart
but refuses to do so). He came limping
up and we transferred everything to his basket.
I stood up and the supervisor AND maintenance worker both decided they
should just push the cart out of the way…but it wouldn’t budge!!! It’s apparently supposed to roll freely when
it’s not in use…so they knew something was wrong with the front wheel. They both got down to look at it. They stood up, and once again the maintenance
lady sat down and pushed the button AND THE CART TOOK OFF!!! We all laughed. Apparently, the weight of the stuff in the
basket had put too much weight on the front of the cart.

Yes, it’s a
long story!!! But the highlight of this
story is that on one of the busiest shopping days in Walmart, EVERY CUSTOMER
SERVICE PERSON I came in contact with smiled, apologized to me, told me not to
worry, tried to make me feel better when I said I was embarrassed and sorry for
causing all the trouble. EVERY CHECKOUT
was OPEN. So I just want to say kudos to
the staff of Walmart in Olean, New York for making this day as good as it could
be. Your sweet attitudes and helpfulness
really stood out today.

I see sooooo
many stories of nightmare issues at Walmart.
I’m happy to say that was NOT my experience…and really never has been my
experience. Merry Christmas to all the
wonderful CUSTOMER SERVICE workers at Walmart who put the SERVICE in and made
this CUSTOMER feel very merry at Christmas!

Friday, November 25, 2016

She’s in the place she’s chosen to be “her space” since
coming to us back in June. I kid you not…she
lays with her hind end on my left arm and her body stretched across my chest…her
heart beating next to my heart. If I lay
down in my bed, and she finds me there, that’s where she will lie. If I try to move my arm out from under her,
she waits till I put my arm back in place…and immediately moves to lie on top
of me. It is "her spot", and she is there as often as she can be.

She does this to no one else in the family. She may lay on top of their stomach for a few
minutes and let them pet her…but it won’t be for long. She’s a “momma’s girl” of a cat. But what she really makes me aware of is my
missing breasts. Is it my imagination,
or is she really trying to make up for what’s missing? Is she comforting me? How could she even know…she wasn’t here when
they were taken six years ago? Why does
she only lie on my left side… where the tumors were?

These are some of the “strange” questions that slide through
my mind. And I thank God for gifting me
with a precious, beautiful, soft cat that seems to “know” somehow that six
years later I still struggle with the fact that I stared death in the face…that
it was growing only a few inches from my heart…that a doctor, with the wisdom
of God, was able to remove three tumors…that medicine that kills cells was able
to do battle inside my body and restore only the healthy, strong cells so I
could continue to live. And after a day
of thanksgiving for all I’ve my blessings, I hurt for the mother that was taken
from me by the very same disease. And I
remember her beautiful cat, Callie, who lay on her hospital bed in her living
room…lay at her feet…growled at me when I’d try to move her to change the
bedding.

Cats! I know there are
some people that detest them. I also
know some people that go a little overboard and love as many of them as
possible (I remember reading of a woman in California who moved out of her
house so it could house more cats…and she has hundreds of cats on her property
that she’s caring for).

I have been
blessed to love many cats in my lifetime.I can remember my first cat.I
was eight…living in Canada…when we got “Angel”.I remember the box with her litter of six kittens…black and gold and
cream-colored babies that were the tiniest, cutest things I’d ever seen.I remember Hai-Ki…my dad’s 40th birthday
present…a Siamese that played hide-and-seek and walked with us whenever we
walked our dog.I remember the brother
and sister cats I had from the same litter when I lived in an apartment during
my college days…one solid black and the other solid white…named Ebony and Ivory!!!Ebony once rode in a luggage carrier on top
of a car from Ruston to New Orleans, Louisiana for the Thanksgiving
holiday.You can imagine my surprise
when my next-door neighbor called from N.O. to let me know she’d be taking care
of Ebony for the week.I remember a tiny
deaf kitten we brought home to care for…removed by a landlord that had a “no
pets” policy (ouch).

I’ve loved kitties for over 50 years!!! Not sure why I felt compelled to share this
tonight except that Mia (short for MacadaMIA…because she’s a “nut”) once again
plopped down on my chest…purring…invading my space…healing my heart…just being
herself. There’s a lot to learn from
this kitten who is being just what she was created to be…who is doing just what she was created
to do…and brings purr joy (pun intended) to my heart. May your life be blessed by a furry “critter”
who may just be an angel in disguise (personal opinion…there are no Scriptures to back up the idea that angels ever visit us in fur – weak smile).

Thank You, Lord, for furry friendships that somehow still
draw attention to You and the comfort You offer. And thank you, Mia…just for being you!

Thursday, November 17, 2016

With snow on the way this weekend, it seemed appropriate to
start prepping the porch for winter…and Christmas. Thanksgiving will come and go quickly in a
week…and this year we get an extra week to enjoy all that Christmas brings.

The Christmas season has somber moments now that I’ve reached
the “Afternoon of Life”. I’ve said
good-bye temporarily to people that were part of my Christmas for over fifty
years. Now they celebrate the season in
the Presence of the One Who made letting them go less painful…but not without
pain. There’s that moment when I hear
Dad’s laughter in my sons’ voices…when I see Mom’s beauty in my daughter’s
eyes. There’s the wish that my
grandchildren could have known the extraordinary love and wisdom my parents
imparted while here on earth. I know
that they see Dan and me in the same way my children saw Dad and Mom…and I know
that I just never feel like I measure up to her. It’s not for not trying, though.

I sat for a few minutes on my porch swing tonight as the
temperature seemed to plunge with the sun. I watched the “evening star”, Venus, shining
spectacularly over the mountaintop across town and wondered if my fascination
with that star compares at all with the purpose of the wise men from the east
that followed the star to Bethlehem.

And for a few minutes, I felt it…that “peace that passes
understanding”. In a world that appears
to have gone berserk with anger…with filth…with hate…with lies…with
misunderstanding…with fear…I felt peace.
That same star that guided the wise men to the One angels proclaimed
would bring “Peace on earth, goodwill to men” became the focus of my
heart. And I was overcome with pure
peace…that the world I live in does not have any of those horrible things in
it. My neighbors wave and say
hello. The clerk at the store smiles and
wishes me well. My millennial children
have been raised with a foundation of values that helps them to recognize truth
from satan’s lies. My grandchildren will
grow up loved, cared for, taught well and blessed because in my lineage were
men and women who have trusted God’s truths through the years…and been found
faithful to the end.

I have fretted and worried and grown angry at the pettiness
of men when the one I should be angry with is the enemy of God who has lied and
deceived and continues to divide and destroy.
But I was reminded tonight that God works in mysterious ways. And no one would have believed that a baby
born in a stable and laid in a manger would become the focal point for
measuring time…would grow up to perform miracles…healing the lame…helping the
blind to see. No one could have known
that night the baby would be worshipped by shepherds who would spread the news
and light a fire that would continue to burn over 2,000 years later. And no one had a clue that night the baby
would one day lay down His life…so that I could have eternal life with God!!!

God works in mysterious ways.
If He can work with a baby born of “insignificant” parents in the
history of men and women…if He could draw three “wise” men from afar to
recognize His significance…if He could make twelve weak, every day men turn
into bold disciples and witnesses that could grow a church that spans the globe
today…I suspect he can use a man with funny hair and a foul mouth and a strange
mind and a caring heart to do whatever God wants to do with this land. We wait to see if God is saving our land…or
judging our land. But this I know…

I am praying for Donald Trump. I am praying for Mike Pence. I am praying for the men and women of the
Senate and Congress. I am praying for
the members of the Supreme Court.

And I am praying for my neighbors...especially the ones who live far away and continue to act out. I choose to love despite their actions. I choose to love despite their opinions of me
and my faith. I choose to love…and my
world will continue to be a world full of “peace that passes understanding” amid
the hatred and turmoil and sinful actions of those who feel differently. May God bless America!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Today I’m ending my 57th year on earth and beginning my 58th.I thought it would be fun to see if I can
list 29 BLESSINGS…one for every other year of my life.I actually have so many more than that…but
this seemed like a challenging number…and I’m sharing my blessings with you as
a gift to say thank you for your friendships…you’ll see that FRIENDSHIPS are
high on my list of blessings!You’ll
also see that my 29 are not “single” blessings…so there’s way more than 58
blessings listed here!

#4My grandchildren…Holden,
Orlando, Roman, Shannon, Devlyn and Erienelis…they make life better than I
deserve for it to be.

#5My extended family:I’ve said goodbye on this side of heaven to
Dad and Mom and I look forward to seeing them again someday.I want to believe that my brother will have
made things right with God before they met and that I’ll see him again
too.My “baby” brother, David, is a
unique gift all on his own and I dearly love him.I’ve also been blessed with aunts and uncles
and cousins galore!Special blessings
Sharen and Robin because they are the kinds of cousin people write
about…loving, caring, staying in touch, funny, sharing…they just make my life
rich.

#6Friends out the whazoo!!!If I tried to list all the friends I’ve been
blessed to know, there just wouldn’t be enough room.Some of you are closer than others…but all of
you have made my life better!Thank you
for that.

#7My church family(families).I don’t like to
think I’m a “church-hopper” … but many moves (physically and spiritually) have
placed me in several churches where God has given me brothers and sisters that
I look forward to spending eternity with.At times, these church family members have been closer than blood family
members…they’ve loved me unconditionally … they’ve held me accountable …
they’ve prayed for me … they’ve forgiven me … they’ve restored me and built me
up.Thank you for being who God intended
you to be in my life.

#8Music…music has played a
special role in my life.For as far back
as I can remember, I’ve sung every day (I can remember as a 4- or 5-year-old
being told it’s time to stop singing and go to sleep).My piano has given me great comfort and joy.

#9The Bible…I could not function
without my instruction manual…and I’m grateful to God every day that He chooses
to speak to me and help me live here on earth!

#10Nature…every day I see God because
He has made His Presence known through all that He created.I’m always amazed when people say they can’t
“see” God…because I can’t “not see” God!!!

#11Other children…they don’t
even have to be my own for me to love and appreciate their purity…their
innocence…their joy…their zest for life…their incredible curiosity…their
unquenchable thirst for knowledge (as in the 478 times a day my granddaughter
asks “Why?”)

#12Words.Stop laughing!Words have been my friend since I could first
utter them.I love that I can
communicate…that I can put my thoughts and feelings into words.I know many who wish I used less of them (and
I do too) … but I just love the way the feel on my tongue and in my mind…and I
love sharing them.Sorry if you’re not
as blessed by them as I am (embarrassed grin).

#13Books…along
with my love for words, I’ve long loved the many adventures I’ve enjoyed while
reading for pleasure.I’ve also been
thrilled with the knowledge I’ve gained.I’m grateful for everything that’s come to me through books!

#14School…I don’t remember much
about elementary school…but I do remember Jr. High, High School, 3 different
colleges … and work with special people on my Master’s degree!Each gave me experiences that increased my
knowledge AND wisdom!I’ll be forever
grateful.

#15Food…I know; I know…everyone
can tell this is something I’m grateful for.My favorite is chicken…I’m not really grateful for Brussel Sprouts or
really many green veges.But overall,
enjoying food has been a pleasurable experience and a blessing.

#16My home…I’ve lived in a lot of
different houses in my lifetime, but no home has been filled with as much love
as my “Little House on the Mountain”!By
American standards, it’s nothing…but world standards, I’m rich and abundantly
blessed!

#17My vehicle…we went a whole year
without a vehicle a few years ago…it can be done.What it taught me was that I should never
take transportation for granted!!!

#18My travel experience…I’ve
visited 39 of the lower 48 states…lived in Canada for 3 years of my life…and
visited South Africa TWICE in my lifetime.I know some people here who have never lived anywhere else.I can’t even imagine that.I’ve been blessed to see what I consider a
big portion of “my land”…and I’m so grateful for this beautiful country.

#19America…yep…I’m a died-in-the-wool,
patriotic, country-loving kind of girl who knows that life could have had a
totally different outcome had I been born anywhere else in the world.I don’t think America is the best country in
the world…I don’t know what would make one country “greater” than another.But I know America has granted me the ability
to worship without fear…to vote in a democratic society…to be part of a
solution in a world full of problems…and I wouldn’t choose to live anywhere
else.She may have her flaws…but they’re
nothing compared to the blessing of being a part of this wonderful country!

#20South Africa…while I love America,
a big chunk of my heart resides in Durban, South Africa…in the memories of
loving men and women of God who are changing the heart of a country in the only
way a heart can be changed…by the Word of God being shared.I love the diversity of the people and the
languages…the beauty of the India Ocean…the smiles…the incredible landscape…the
animals we saw at Kruger Park…the people…the people…the people.Will always consider my interactions in South
Africa a big blessing in my life!

#21Community…living in a small
community can be trying sometimes (gossip, backbiting, too many people knowing
everyone else’s business) but this small community also gives a sense of
security…love…concern…and joy!Sometimes
the people of Salamanca are unaware of the true beauty of their community
because they’ve lived here too long and take so much for granted…but this town
is a wonderful town!

#23Teaching…teaching is a “gift”
and I was blessed with two wonderful teachers who raised me and gifted me with
a love for learning…and a love for sharing all that I’ve learned.I especially enjoy the “Ohhhhhh!!!” moments
of teaching… when they “get it” and learning has taken place.I hope to continue teaching in one form or
another till the day I die.

#24 Facebook … okay, you can stop
groaning.But for this stay-at-home
grandma, Facebook has allowed me to stay in touch with people from my past…with
friends all over the world … with family.It’s given me new knowledge.It’s
provided laughs…and lots of animal videos (grin)

#25Four seasons… yes, I realize this counts as part of nature, but
having lived in Louisiana for the greater portion of my life, where there are
only two seasons (hot and hotter), it’s been a joy to have four distinct
weather seasons in my life since moving to western New York.

#26Talent – I’ve been blessed
to know and work with many talented people in my life.I could not write a list of blessings and not
especially include the friends of Enchante Cabaret who filled about a fourth of
my lifetime with incredible talent…lots of laughter…a few tears…and wonderful
memories.

#27Speaking of memories
… I know that people lose the ability to remember, and I pray that never
happens to me because I so enjoy walking down memory lane and remembering all
the blessings of my life.

#28Adversity … I know this seems
like a strange thing to be thankful for, but life has been full of
adversity.Failures…divorce…miscarriage…sins…troubles…heartbreak...cancer…death!!!You name it…I’ve experienced it!But through every adversity I’ve grown into a
stronger, more capable, more loving woman of God.

#29GOD AGAIN… Everything in my life begins and ends with
God.I love that I can love Him (since
He loved me first)… I love that I can talk about Him.I love that I can testify to His goodness and
greatness.I love that everything about
Him is personal with me.I cannot thank
Him enough for being the blessing in my life that gives and gives and gives and
I can only pray that He knows how much I love Him!

So I’ll stop here with a half a lifetime of blessings because,
technically, if I listed all the parts of each of these, there’d be way more
than 58 blessings here.I just know that
my birthdays ARE happy because I know who I’ve believed in and have been
persuaded that He is able to take care of everything in my life.Thank You, Lord, for 58 years of Your
faithfulness and greatness in my life.Amen!

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Recently I helped someone I love dearly as she started to "journal". She wants to get to know herself better...which I think might be a challenge for all of us...I know it is for me. I gave her a "starter question": What color would you use to describe your life? From her description, I challenged her to dig deeper into the color she'd chosen...and that got me to thinking.

There's just no way one color would do for me...and because her heart is so like mine, she'd actually used one color as a blend of two. But even two aren't enough for me. So I took the colors of God's rainbow to describe my days, knowing that there's even more depth to my days because of all the hues and shades and depths of each color that make up my life. I see my life in colors and hear my life in tones...I suspect that's why music and beauty take my breath away.

I've x'd out names for privacy reasons...and I've also x'd out my list of sins that you'll see, because that's pretty much between God and me. But I challenge you...how would you color your life if it was a coloring page?

Red-A red
day is an angry day to me.It’s a day
when I let people’s actions get to me.Usually it’s a day of unfulfilled promises or unrealistic expectations
that aren’t met.Once a day starts red,
it seems hard to get it to change colors.I have to let the night come and sleep on it and move away from it to
get a grip on it.But falling asleep on
a red day often proves difficult, because red days tend to make me focus on the
problems instead of the solutions…and I mull things over in my brain too much…causing
me to have difficulty drifting off to sleep.Even my sleep will be restless…full of troubling dreams.I do not like red days.

However, occasionally, when the grandchildren come calling
late in the day my red can fade to a beautiful pink … usually because their
silliness and laughter helps to mute the red.Falling asleep after a pink evening is usually pleasant and I find
myself smiling as I drift off to sleep.Dreams consist of “visits” with people from my past who made my life
better.

Orange – An
orange day is usually a “happy” day.When I think of orange days I think of activity.Some “event” happens that gives the day a
different flavor.It can be something as
simple as aride through the
countryside…a field trip with a grandchild’s class…a doctor’s visit.Somehow orange days feel more purposeful…as
if there’s a reason for my being here.I
like orange days.

Yellow– A yellow
day is a day or productivity and accomplishment.It’s a day I can check things off my“to do” list because they’re finally done.I always feel better when I can “see” that I’m
not just floating through senselessness and laziness…but that I am
accomplishing something and makingmy
mark on this world.

Green – A green
day is a day of peace and rest.It’s a
day I’ve paid more attention to creation and all the beautiful things around
me.It might be a squirrel at play in a
tree…a cat on the prowl…the way the wind sounds blowing through the dry leaves
of the trees…the sparkle of the sun or moon on the river. It’s letting my
spirit connect with God’s creative Spirit and appreciating how blessed l am to
be a child of His.

Blue – A blue day is a usually a day of thought for
me.There are days I find myself digging
deeper in my Bible…thinking deeper…dreaming bigger.Blue days are the days my thoughts try to
work out any problems…restore any relationships…renew my energy…spend more time
writing.They are my planning days,my organizing and preparation days.These
are probably my most common days…they appear to be get-nothing-done days…but
they’re probably the days the most gets done!

Indigo – An indigo
day is a dark day for me.These days
will probably have tears in them.These
are the days I choose to allow myself to grieve.I grieve for the loss of life and love: xx, xxx, xxxxxxx, xxxxxxx and many friends who already
gone to be with the Lord.These are the
days I grieve for lost relationships that still hurt:xxxxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxx and any friend
I may have lost out of hurt or misunderstandings that I might have been able to
control.These are the days I grieve for
the painful places in my past:miscarriage,
divorce, cancer…things I could not stop from happening in my life.These are the day I grieve for my many sins
that have hurt God:xxxxxxx, xxxx,
xxxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxxx xx xxxxxxx, xxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx,
xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxx xxxxx, xxxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxx…the list is long.Because this description is longer, it may
look like I have a lot of indigo days, but these days are under my control most
of the time and I allow them and dwell in them only when necessary…and when
possible, I never have two of them in a row.

Violet– Like the
seventh day, the seventh color, violet, is my color of rest.It’s the day I rest in the beauty of my life.I rest in the grace and forgiveness I don’t
deserve but that God has givenbecause
He chooses to love me so.I rest in the
love that surrounds me from xxx, from xxx, from xxxx, xxxxxxx and xxxxxxx xxx
xxxxx, from xxxxxx, xxxxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxxxx, xxxxxx and xxxxxxxxx, from extended family, especially xxxxxx...and
from my friends and the kids’ friends who have chosen to love me (and allowed
me to love them in my lifetime).I bask in
friendships too numerous to count.I
dwellin the beauty of nature and all
that makes life gorgeous.I thrill to
music that touches me in places nothing else can.I like indigo days and I don’t just do them
once a week…there are times I have weeklong indigo days!

God has colored my world in such a way that if I named every color that exists I could match it to a feeling...because I have so many feelings that rise from the heights of glory to the depths of despair. I challenge you to look at God's colors in your world and enjoy knowing that He did that all for you...and me...and everyone He loves!!!

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One Happy "Gammy"

About Me

If God had given me my grandsons first, I would have treated my children better. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being a "gammy" (or gee-gee according to Holden - smile). The boys individually are each precious...collectively they make my world spin. The twinkle in their eyes...the giggles and laughter...the time spent exploring...their solitary play...their singing and ?playing? the piano...the food that sometimes actually makes it to their mouth...I wouldn't trade one thing! I am a blessed gammy...update: blessed with a granddaughter on June 16, 2011...I adore her too!